It's All about the Journey; Handbound books, Rubber Stamping, Paper Crafting and Tutorials. Where will your crafting journey take you?

Holiday Sketch

At the beginning of the month, hubby and I went for a short break; camping in Chichester. It was a delightful setting in woodland and for the most part we had good weather. After watching the painting shows on C&C and visiting a few arty blogs I was inspired to get sketching again. I got out my sketching kit, and decided to take the watercolours with me, just in case the opportunity arose.

We visited Petworth House, and for the first time I saw the original paintings of Turner. OMG I was blown away and could have cried, they were so amazing! I’ve only seen them in magazines before, and I just thought he was the Prince of Gloom and wasn’t that impressed. How wrong can you be, in real life there is an incredible amount of detail in the paintings, there were rooms and rooms of the most stunning art. If you can’t get to a gallery but find yourself in Sussex, DO check out Petworth House.

Another day we went to Parham House, can you tell we aren’t pool n sunbathing kinda people :) I just love architecture and painting/drawing old buildings. There is so much texture and they never fail to captivate me. I did get some funny looks the other year, when I was photographing the old worn leather baggage at a heritage railway. I found the surfaces and ageing just as interesting as the buildings. Who knows what those pictures will end up as, reference for distressed painting projects or faded out as backgrounds for digital projects :) Art really has exploded into so many possibilities for me in the last few years. Its grown far beyond what I thought it was twenty years ago.

Anyway, enough wittering! Here is the picture I wanted to share; its of the dovecote at Parham House.

Sketch of Dovecote at Parham House

I also took a photo of it from the gardens, which will feature on a calendar on here later in the year. I also took loads of floral pictures in the gardens too, so lots of inspiration for me for when the weather turns :) I did the pencil sketch at the time and then added the colour back at the campsite :)

Thanks to Stephanie and Sheena from Create and Craft, to Julie Prichard for the art classes all of which have helped me get over my fear of painting, and redefine what art is. Thanks to Seth Apter for his amazing blog; The Altered Page, which is a constant source of inspiration. I’m going to give painting and drawing another go and see where it takes me.

I have just joined the SAA again, they have loads of great tutorial DVD and books on there. There is also a painting and drawing channel which shows excerpts from the DVDs. Thankfully these are also available on the computer and on You Tube for others like me with out Sky! After watching one of their execerpts from a video by Bente King, I painted the best realistic leaf painting I’ve ever done, but I’ll share that another day. :)

2 Responses

When you sent me this sketch Billie I hadn’t realised it was of a dovecote at Parham House. Love those old buildings.
I showed my DH your leaves – he is good at drawing – and he was well impressed too :)
How on earth do you manage to camp with your back/neck problems?? I’d be hobbling around like some poor old dear, afraid my camping days are over :)

Hey Lynn
Thanks :) I have a real ‘thing’ for old buildings. Love the stonework, even though I haven’t got the skill to depict it well yet.

Who says I wasn’t hobbing around. Lets just say the pensioners visiting at Parham house were way more spritely than me! Crocked everything big time with the uneven ground at the campsite and sitting on damp grass sketching DOH. I should add we have trailer tent, so its not a crawl in and sleep on the ground kinda deal ;)

Reading (ahem) a book about Monet, content is superb, but the font is really difficult for my dylsexia. I’ll persevere for a few weeks as I’m really interested in his life story as well as his art.
ISBN: 3-8228-3191-3

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Billie :)

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